Rodney Koon was "on an all-night binge of crack cocaine" before picking up Will Reid, 26, and his 25-year-old wife, Jamie Reid, who was pregnant, to take them to the airport, according to a newspaper account of the sentencing.

Anne Reid voiced some relief that Koon, who is 46, spared her and her daughter-in-law's families from suffering through a trial. He pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of felony death by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child and driving while impaired. A judge sentenced him to at least 12 years in prison.

"We're grateful that he did get the maximum that's allowable for this offense, which was a relief to us, and it's one more step in the closure process," she told The Express-Times today. "It doesn't bring them back, and it doesn't make us feel any better, but it is one more step."

She described as very beautiful the tearful apology read in court by Rodney Koon.

But she's not ready for forgiveness.

"I couldn't do that now," she said. "But everybody makes mistakes. He made a whopper, and we all could be in a situation where we make a mistake, and I believe he's very remorseful."

"Over time, maybe," she added.

Investigators say Will and Jamie Reid were in the back seat of Koon's limousine when the car ran off a highway and hit a tree at about 55 mph.

Koon had picked up the Reids about 10:30 a.m. at a downtown hotel, the Citizen-Times of Asheville said, attributing an assistant district attorney. Koon was still under the influence at the time of the crash, blood tests showed, according to the newspaper.

Married less than three months, the couple had come to Asheville to attend a friend's wedding and were heading to the Asheville Regional Airport for the return flight home to Philadelphia when the crash occurred.

Will Reid was the 2005 Phillipsburg valedictorian. Both were teachers in Philadelphia.

"In the 10 months since the accident, I don't go five minutes without thinking about it, ever," Ron Soukup, Jamie Reid's father, said in court, according to the Citizen-Times. "I miss Jamie so much. I miss Will. I will miss not being a grandfather.

"They had such a bright future. I sometimes still wake up at night drenched in sweat. I still have trouble believing it's true."

The Reid and Soukup families went to Asheville with the knowledge a plea was in the works, "but you never know until it happens," Anne Reid said. "At the last minute he can change his mind, but he didn't."

She said in court the family suffered "unbelievable anguish," and told Koon the couple were "killed by your negligence."

"My sentence is a life sentence," she said, according to the newspaper.